Preparing the Way

Monthly Archives: May 2018

Posted by Katharine Vincent
on May 13, 2018Comments Off on “Developing and applying a five step process for mainstreaming climate change into local development plans: A case study from Zambia” now available in Climate Risk Management

Dr Katharine Vincent is in Nairobi this week running training for WWF's Africa Adaptation Initiative. The training will bring together representatives of WWF offices and their civil society partners from across the continent, including Mozambique, Madagascar, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, and DRC. In terms of content it will cover vulnerability risk assessments, mainstreaming climate change, identifying and selecting between adaptation options, and accessing adaptation finance.

Dr Katharine Vincent is in Bonn for a side meeting to the UNFCCC intersessional discussions on measuring progress on adaptation. The event is organised by IDRC and the African Group of Negotiators Expert Support (AGNES) and follows on from a side event at COP 23 held on the same theme, and co-convened by IDRC and AGNES with McGill University, University of Notre Dam du Lac and the Asian Institute of Technology. The aim of the meeting to take stock of the various initiatives for measuring progress on adaptation, and identify particular needs, taking into account the ongoing negotiations on the Paris Agreement and how to transparently measure adaptation progress. Other organisations represented at the meeting include the Global Centre of Excellent on Climate Adaptation, UNEP DTU, UN Environment, UN Climate Change, CCAFS, GIZ, IIED and the governments of Kenya, Uganda, Botswana and Ghana.

A new paper has been published in the journal Global Challenges on "Large-Scale Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Adaptation Research: Challenges and Insights". Led by Georgina Cundill from IDRC, with inputs from Katharine Vincent, the paper highlights experiences of the consortia of the Collaborative Adaptation Research in Africa and Asia programme – including Deltas, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation, on which Kulima is a partner. The paper highlights how the success of well‐designed transdisciplinary research processes is strongly influenced by relational and systemic features of collaborative relationships. In the new arena of large‐scale collaborative science efforts, enablers of transdisciplinary collaboration include dedicated project coordinators, leaders at multiple levels, and the availability of small amounts of flexible funds to enable nimble responses to opportunities and unexpected collaborations.